Disclaimer: Code Geass and all its characters are the property of Sunrise, Inc.

06 A Different Sort of Game

Lying in his bed back in his residence Villa Ashford, Lelouch looked back to the events of that afternoon. His first return visit to Kallen was cut short due to her distress from her too-early attempt to stand up on her own. He did, however, leave with something he hadn't felt in a long while.

Hope.

Kallen may not be the fighter that he had met, anymore, but her spirit was very much there. Her dissatisfaction with the status quo had driven her to action, and her anger at her failure, her eyes just then, was something he had sorely missed.

Perhaps that was enough? Perhaps that spirit was what was needed to secure his path to the throne? Or perhaps he only needed to keep her close, regardless of her physical or mental state?

No. If he were to be truly honest with himself, regardless of the throne, he wouldn't be satisfied with Kallen's current state. He had fallen for Kallen Kozuki, and he had sorely wished he could take another peek to see if she can indeed return to herself and her destined place by his side.

Alas, he could only use it once on her, and he already did.

No matter. He was already gifted with the intellect to find solutions to whatever problem at hand. The peek he had previously done was a cheat that was borne out of impatience. He'd like to think that he had learned some patience from recent experiences.

Him falling to an obvious trap.

Kallen fighting for her life.

He banished the memories to put his mind into focus. He got up and pulled out a chess set from one of his drawers. He then sat at the coffee table and arranged the board to the best approximation of the problem he wanted solved.

His queen was currently at the far side of the board, unable to move. There was no apparent threat, but she would be unable to take action should his king come into threat.

No, he thought, that wasn't quite right. He still considered Kallen as his queen, but she wasn't exactly on his side, was she?

He reached out to replace the black queen with the white. Even after doing so, he wasn't sure if he should designate her as such. In her current condition, it wasn't clear if she was an ally or a potential enemy. Still, he thought to keep her white for the reason that she was presently outside his influence. He included her father (a rook), Shirley (a pawn), and Sayoko (a bishop) under white as well.

Then there was the matter of Jeremiah Gottwald. He had the man's support when it came to his secret activities, but will he have the man's support on his planned policies once he took his seat as viceroy? He supposed he could be a black bishop, but he can't move to support the other black pieces on the board. Yet.

Satisfied with how he laid the board, he folded his hands and began to plan his next steps. This was, however, easier said than done. There was no enemy king, for one, and his objective was not to capture, but to lure the queen into his side. White may not even make a move in response to the moves he would make.

Perhaps it was about time someone assigned a third color to chess?

He scoffed. He didn't need a third color; he was in fact playing two sides! When it came to his upcoming role as viceroy, he was playing black. When it came to his visits to Kallen, he was playing white.

Given that, his objective would be to make sure the two sides would never cross paths. Once again he had arranged the board to represent his newfound understanding. With the board finally set, he could see the moves he needed to make, and those that he needed to avoid.

Now, the only thing he needed was time.

His intelligence reports indicated that a coup was brewing among the nobility of the Area, and that they planned to act on the day he formally took over as viceroy. He could push that date back to an extent, but he simply didn't have enough allies at present to successfully snuff it out.

Though, if he could get Kallen back before then...

He sighed. Yes, time was clearly against him.

-.o.0.o.-

Once again, Kallen was puzzling out the mystery that was Lelouch Lamperouge.

She was alone in her bed at the moment. It was still bright out, and it was one of the few times she could be left on her own without risking an episode. She used times like this to get her thoughts in order without being interrupted. Or try to remember.

Their encounter this time around was unfortunately much shorter (for which she was partly to blame), but she already had two new puzzles for her to crack. Never mind that she was supposed to be resting at the moment.

The first of them had to do with the handkerchief he offered her. It felt... new. As if it was freshly bought and was never used. No, not even washed. In retrospect, he smelled the same way. Did he just buy what he was wearing? Did he need to change out of something else in a hurry?

She scoffed at the thought of Lelouch being a spy. He probably just spilled some syrup all over himself prior to dropping by. Though that didn't explain the handkerchief.

She dropped that train of thought in favor of the second puzzle, which she thought was the bigger mystery: Why wasn't she reacting negatively to Lelouch's presence? After his first visit, they had all assumed that she was finally ready for other visitors, but the recent doctor's visit already proved that wrong. Yet, even in her distress, he was able to approach her close enough to give her the handkerchief. Even if she had initially assumed that it was her father, she hadn't panicked (well, she did, but not badly) after finding out it wasn't.

What you did was very brave.

She felt her face heat up at the memory. Sure, her father and even Shirley had been supportive of her in all through recovery, but they gradually seemed patronizing over time. Having heard Lelouch compliment her...

She covered her face with the pillow beside her. Was she seriously developing a crush on him? No! It had to be because of the novelty of having someone new around.

Right?

-.o.0.o.-

What is this place?

She found herself in a sort of gallery, with framed images hung all around her. What she found strange, though, was that most of the images were blurred. She could recognize familiar shapes, but could not make out the details.

One particular frame caught her attention. Unlike the others, the image in this one flickered and swirled, much like the surface of a pond that children had been throwing stones at. Every now and then she could make out the details of it. At one point she thought she recognized herself in it before it settled on the look of a window with the glass fogged up. She reached out to try to rub the glass, but was pulled into the frame instead upon her touch.

In the next moment, she found herself sprawled on the ground, surrounded by people. She couldn't move. Then she noticed that there wa a puddle beneath her.

Blood?!

"Get up!" she heard Lelouch's voice ahead of her. She looked up to see him very angry. Had he been referring to her?

In the next moment, he grabbed the front of her shirt and forced her to stand. Still confused, her eyes widened when she saw Lelouch's other hand holding a knife. He raised that hand...

She woke up screaming. Shirley was at her side instantly.

"It's okay. You're home. You're safe," she repeated while holding her tight, rocking her.

"I'm okay," she managed to say after getting her racing heart under control. "It was just a bad dream."

Shirley gave her a strange look before responding, "That's good, I guess." She then offered, "Do you want a glass of water."

"Yeah," she responded wth a nod. "That sounds like a good idea."

While Shirley walked to the beside table to pour her drink, she sincerely hoped that a bad dream was all what she saw truly was.

A/N: Yeah, can't make myself go study, LOL! The exam is in about 20 hours from upload of this, so wish me luck!

I think I have two more chapters in my head before the chapters that I have been writing backwards. If I get stuck on the details, I'll do the timeskip chapter and post the backwards chapters.

As always, feedback is appreciated.

~ryder77